Cranston To Miss Ethics Hearings

November 14, 1990|By New York Times News Service.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) announced Tuesday that he would not appear at most of the Senate Ethics Committee`s ``Keating Five`` hearings that open Thursday into his and four other senators` ties to a savings and loan executive, because he is beginning a seven-week program of radiation therapy for prostate cancer.

Cranston, 76, said he would begin five-day-a-week radiation Monday at the Stanford University School of Medicine in California and would only be able to respond in writing to the committee`s questions after this week.

He said he would be available for the two days of hearings this week, meaning that he probably would be limited to giving an opening statement to the panel. In a letter to the panel Cranston said, ``I naturally want to cooperate fully with the committee so that the hearing proceedings may be carried out as expeditiously and with as little interruption as possible.``

Cranston announced last Thursday that because of cancer he would not run for re-election in 1992.

The five senators are under scrutiny for allegations that they overstepped the bounds of Senate rules in interceding with federal regulators to help a political contributor, Charles Keating Jr., who owned the failing Lincoln Savings and Loan. The senators received a total of $1.3 million in campaign contributions from Keating and his associates.